Healthcare IT News' Best Hospital IT Departments 2016: Meet the winners

Healthcare IT News revealed the 20 winners of our 2016 Best Hospital IT Department Awards.

To be considered as a qualifying Best Hospital IT Department, at least 50 percent of a team's staffers had to take our survey. All told, more than 4,300 hospital IT employees completed the poll.

Nominations opened May 24, 2016 and 97 different IT departments nationwide made their case.

On July 21, each of the nominees was emailed a link to a secure online employee satisfaction survey, and instructed to distribute it among all department staff: management, supervisors, full-time and contract employees.

Collection of survey data ended on August 26. Of the nominated hospitals, 44 met the 50 percent participation threshold.

Of these finalists, 10 qualified for the "Super" category (200-plus IT employees), 8 for the "Large" category (76 to 199 employees), 10 for the "Medium" category (26-75 employees) and 16 for the "Small" category (25 or fewer employees).

For the first time, researchers at HIMSS Analytics crunched the numbers with us to determine this year's winners.

"Using multivariate analysis, the results were analyzed and weighted according to the relative importance measure for each qualifying question response, from which we were able to calculate a composite score for each qualifying organization," said Brendan Fitzgerald, director of research at HIMSS Analytics, in explaining the ranking criteria. "We took it a step further and analyzed the relative importance of each individual indicator for the detailed questions to come up with a detailed score summary.”

With help from supplemental information derived from HIMSS Analytics' Logic database and other data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services, we'll be rolling out a series of articles, charts and infographics on HealthcareITNews.com throughout the month of November to explore the effects of a variety of factors on workplace morale.

Learn more about the winning IT departments below.

The winning hospitals:

Small Hospitals

Comments from staff:
"A strong family culture means we are committed to helping each other to reach the best possible outcome."
"Our department is patient centered. We strive to make this hospital the best place for patients by being innovative and supporting the clinical ares as much as possible."

Comments from staff:
"We are very team focused and work very well together. I can count on every one of my other team members."
"Our IT dept morale consistently stays very high even under strenuous circumstances due to how we interact with each other, and how we are respected and recognized throughout the organization for our ongoing efforts."

Comments from staff:
"Our Administration sufficiently funds the IT department so that we can constantly bring new technology to our hospital."
"Great attitudes among co-workers makes it easy to approach (them) when you have questions or need assistance."

Comments from staff:
"The IT department provides excellent customer service to the organization. We are able to implement new solutions to help improve workflow, adoption, security and availability. "
"We provide cutting edge VDI environment to our users."

Medium Hospitals

Comments from staff:
"We as technicians have the freedom to make our own decisions without management stepping in and micro managing everything we do."
"The IT department values individual and team growth. There is a clear directive that aids in making tough decision choices."

Comments from staff:
"Giving me the trust and autonomy to be responsible for the areas of my responsibility. Allowing my work to speak for itself."
"Encourages cross training and advancement. We also have monthly group team building activities, such as picnics, cook offs, etc."

Large Hospitals

Comments from staff:
"We have strong partnerships with the clinicians so that we can be innovative with technology that supports them in providing awesome care to our patients."
"We work hard but we play hard too. Lots of laughs. We are encouraged to use are creative sides and share ideas to make systems better."

Comments from staff:
"My IT department gives me the freedom to do my job the way I see fit. There is tremendous flexibility and encouragement from management."
"It values us as individuals. Employee satisfaction is the number 1 priority."

Comments from staff:
"Cooperation between units is encouraged and used extremely effectively to meet a goal."
"It is a cohesive team that works together through all of the challenges that we have on a daily basis."

Comments from staff:
"Provides a challenging set of projects for me to work on, as well as supports my efforts."
"The teamwork and commitment from associates within the department is second to none. You can count on anyone to assist or help if it is needed."

Comments from staff:
"The culture of IT as a clinical aid at Meridian is well-documented. Everyone works toward the shared goal of making our hospitals and physician practices as safe and efficient as possible."
"I am allowed to be self motivated and provide flexible hours and the abiltity to be a lifelong learner."